Happy Christmas Eve!! I say it every year, but I can't believe how quick Christmas has come around again. I wanted to share some of my favourite essentials that have been holy grails over the past few weeks. A few things are from my work secret santa which I am absolutely in love with and others I was kindly gifted from Simply Be!

A few weeks back I was given the opportunity to pick a few things from the Simply Be site, I chose to pick things that I'd enjoy wearing over this festive party season. I am absolutely obsessed with lingerie and I always feel like it's such a nice touch to any outfit, even if it's just for my eyes! I have quite big boobs and I find it so difficult to a) find my size in quite a few high street stores and b) find nicer designs/colours that aren't your standard black or white. So, for the past year I've only purchased bras online as there's a much better variety and I don't feel so limited. I decided to pick these gorgeous lace bras from Pretty Secrets who are stocked on the Simply Be site. Mink is one of my favourite colours and I loved the idea of having a mink coloured bra. I also love that it's a two pack so I can really mix and match with both.

I couldn't do an essentials post and not include one of my favourite beauty products of the year (possibly my favourite?) this highlighter has been such a babe to own. Highlighter always on fleek! It's a product that I won't ever be able to stop raving on about because the quality and the price is insane.

The second thing I picked out from the Soap and Glory site was this black nightgown. I think the last time I owned a nightgown was when I was back in primary school. This is my favourite time of year to just be all snuggly and wrapped up whilst watching christmas movies on the sofa, so I thought a nightgown would really come in good use.

I am so glad I am finally getting round to talking about my Sacha powder. I've wanted it for months and months but because it isn't sold in the UK, it was always something I forgot about until I finally purchased it a few months back, although it took me ages to find the right occasion to want to bake to perfection to.

At work some of us recently took part in doing secret santa. My friend Morgan got me and gurl really came through with the gifts. Over the past few weeks I've become obsessed with having super soft hands, especially at work as retail = dry hands. So sensing that I was a Soap and Glory fan she got me the zest gift set which comes with the hand food hand cream, a pink luffa, body butter, a body scrub and a body wash. It literally smells good enough to eat! I am a really big fan of Soap and Glory products, so this set is perfect!

This was my second secret santa gift and I am so in love with it! a little back story, when me and Morgan went shopping at the start of the month for our work christmas party, she swatched Brooklyn Thorn on her hand and we both fell in love! I was already over my budget when I saw it, so said I'd come back for it another day, so I was pretty chuffed when I saw she'd gotten it for me. It's a gorgeous mink colour. It has quite a few similarities to StingRAYE from Colourpop that I also own. Nyx has fast become one of my favourite beauty brands this year. Every product is on point and for such affordable prices.

Firstly, I am so happy with how these pictures turned out! I've had my Cannon 1100D for exactly a year now and I feel like recently I've been trying to get better at using it. I still don't think I use it to its full potential but I am still learning. I think in January as a little post Christmas present to myself I want to book a photography course as I think it'll be fun and really useful. I also want to get a new lens - recommendations appreciated!

It's been a few months now since NYX finally started stocking its products all over the UK and I've been loving testing loads out. I am still obsessed with my two lip lingerie liquid lipsticks but I wanted to try these soft matte lip creams as I personally found they had a better variety of shades and I'd heard quite a few mixed reviews on these, so wanted to try them out myself.

Abu Dhabi - £5.50

Transylvania - £5.50

Rome - £5.50

Copenhagen - £5.50

I got all four of my shades in my local Boots! I didn't realise they'd started stocking NYX, so I went in not really having shades in mind. 'Rome' is definitely my favourite shade, it's a gorgeous everyday pink which is amazing at adding a bit extra on days when I have quite a basic makeup look. I think Transylvania and Copenhagen are the perfect shades for A/W! I will never say no to a dark lip around this time of year. I'd probably say Abu Dhabi is my least favourite shade as it was my first purchase as I picked it up accidentally thinking it was a different shade - It's a nice colour but it's a type of "nude barely there" shade so I don't really feel like it does anything for me when I have it on.

In terms of how it applies I do have some problems with it and upon looking at reviews I've noticed a large majority of others think the same. Firstly on the opening of each one I realised that there really isn't a lot of product in a bottle, I know these are only priced at £5.50 but I don't think that justifies it. Secondly I don't seem to find them very pigmented, I found that sometimes it comes out very streaky on the lips and it takes a few extra dips and swipes to the lips to really get it at its best and even then I'm not too impressed. I found that applying lip liner first works wonders to fix the problem. Overall, I'd probably rate these a 4.5 out of 10 as I do quite like them but the cons outweigh the pros. I am a big fan of some of NYX's other products so I won't be put off.